Palma
new TVCC softball assistantMonitor Staff Reports
ATHENSAshley Palma has been named as the new Trinity Valley Community College
assistant softball coach.
Palma, who spent the last four years at Ranger Junior College as assistant softball coach,
was hired after an extensive search by Lady Cardinals head coach Ashley Johnston, who
noted the choice was obvious.
I am very excited to bring Ashley on staff here, Johnston said. She was
an outstanding player (in high school and college) and an even better coach.
She has helped Ranger improve so much the last four years, and I am looking forward
to see what she is going to bring to this program, Johnston added.
At Ranger in 2009, Palma helped the Lady Rangers qualify for their conferences
postseason tournament for the first time in 10 years.
In addition to coaching softball, Palma also coached volleyball and basketball at Ranger,
as well as serving as student activities director and a dorm director.
Palma is a native of Pasadena, graduating from Sam Rayburn High School, where she was a
first-team all-district selection at third base all four years. Sam Rayburn reached the
regional quarterfinals in 2001, and Palma was selected to a state all-star team.
She played on the collegiate level at the University of Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana
Tech University. At Louisiana-Monroe, she was selected a team captain as a freshman.
Palma graduated with a bachelors degree in sports and exercise studies from Tarleton
State University. She plans to start on her masters degree later this year.
I am very excited to be here, Palma said. I plan on helping future Lady
Cardinals to become well-round student-athletes and successful young ladies.
My goal as a first-year coach in this program is to do nothing less than help take
these Lady Cardinals to their first conference tournament, she vowed.
The Lady Cardinals went 19-32 in the 2010 spring season and narrowly missed reaching the
postseason tournament with an 8-16 conference record.

Summer
workout!

Monitor Photos/Kerry Yancey
ABOVE: Incoming Eustace High School seniors Vanessa Lopez (front) and Allie Cass lead a group of girls and younger boys through the dummies in an agility drill Thursday as the EHS summer workout program continues. Seventh grade and older students participate in drills and/or weightlifting four days a week to build strength and endurance. BELOW: Incoming Mabank Junior High seventh-grader William Ackley works to pull down the bar inside the Mabank High School weight room Wednesday. Ackley was working on his own, as the regular summer workouts took a week's hiatus. The final two weeks of summer workouts resume Monday (tomorrow).